Material handling apparatus



Sept. 8, 1959 w. H. Ross MATERIAL HANDLING APPARATUS Filed Feb. 3, 1958r 1111mm; 4- k n /l United States PatentOffi Patented" Sept. 8, 1959303,302 MATERIAL HANDLING AlPPARATUS William H. Ross, Hayward, Calif,assignor to J. Warren Manuel, Oakland, Calif.

Application February 3, *1958, Serial No. 712,741 4 Claims. (01. 302 -49This invention generally relates to the art of hantiling and conveyingmaterials, and is more particularly directed towards an apparatus inwhich air is utilized as the carrier for the material.

In many instances, air blowers or similar equipment are used to providea stream of air for the purpose of moving solid particles of materialbetween spaced positions. Usually such air stream is confined within aconduit into which the material is operatively deposited. By way ofexample only, in the placing of rock wool or similar insulating materialin a building, it is conventional practice to utilize such anarrangement whereby the blower and material may be placed exteriorly ofthe structure to be insulated, and the material thus carried through aflexible conduit by an air stream for deposit in the desired locations.This type of system has in general been widely accepted, but is subjectto certain shortenings and features of disadvantages. For example, inthe case of such materials as rock wool, glass wool and the like, theinsulating value is determined largely by the number of small airpockets curtained therein. Since the material is usually brought to thesite in sacks, it has been found that unless the material is fluffed orseparated to a considerable extent prior to application, it will havelittle insulating value. In view of this, most insulating contractorsuse excessively long and wide conduits and a high capacity blower, sothat the material in passing therealong will be expanded, creating thenecessary air pockets. This, of course, entails the use of expensive andbulky equipment.

While the foregoing discussion has been pointed at the conveying ofinsulating materials, numerous other substances are benefited in somemanner if a flulfing action takes place. For example, in the conveyingof various seed crops, such action will tend to assist in the finalseparation of the grain from the chaif, straw, etc. Consequently, thepresent invention is not intended to be limited to operations on anyspecific material, but rather to an apparatus capable of moving andfinding materials having a wide range of physical properties.

It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provideapparatus adapted to move material by an air carrier stream, on whichthe blower and other parts of the structure may be economically producedon a small physical scale, yet which is capable of handling lar-geproduct flow.

Another object of this invention is to provide apparatus of thecharacter described in which a maximum flnifing of the product iseffected directly within the apparatus whereby the product may bedischarged in a desirable condition substantially immediately adjacentthe outlet of the apparatus.

A further object of the invention is to provide apparatus of the typereferred to in which the product is acted upon by a source of air toproduce a fluffing of the material and the transportation thereof to adischarge outlet.

. Thainvention possesses other objects and features of advantage, someof which, with the foregoing, will be set forth in the followingdescription of the preferred form of the invention which is illustratedin the drawing accompanying and forming part of the specification. It isto be understood, however, that variations in the showing made by thesaid drawing and description may be adopted within the scope of theinvention, as set forth in the claims.

Referring to said drawing:

Figure 1 is a side elevational view of the apparatus of the presentinvention.

Figure 2 is a top plan view thereof, with portions of the materialhopper removed.

Figure 3 is a vertical cross-sectional view taken substantially in theplane indicated by line 3-3 of Figure 1.

Figure 4 is a cross-sectional view taken substantially in the planeindicated by line 44 of Figure 3.

The exemplary apparatusdisclosed in the drawing is particularly designedfor use in installing insulating ma: terial, but as was previouslymentioned, and as will hereinafter be made clear, the teachings of thepresent invention are not to be construed as limited thereto, since themethod of agitating or flulfing the material being conveyed isapplicable to numerous other environments.

With reference to the drawing, the disclosed apparatus will be seen toinclude a horizontally disposed frame 12 upon which the various unitsare mounted, and in order to permit ready movement of the entiremachine, a pair of wheels 13 are provided adjacent one end of the frameand a handle 14 adjacent the other end thereof, the handle terminatingin short legs 16 which, together with the Wheels 13, engage the groundor other supporting surface.

A motor 17 is disposed medially of the frame ends and the drive shaftthereof as provided with a pair of sprockets 18 and 19, the former beingoperatively connected with a chain or belt 21 for driving a gearreduction unit 22, and the latter driving an air blower 23 through achain or belt 24.

Positioned adjacent one end of the frame 12 is the material receivingand agitating unit of the present invention, and generally indicated bythe numeral 26. This unit, as best seen in Figures 3 and 4 of thedrawing is provided with a generally cylindrical housing wall 27 whichextends transversely of the frame and whose ends are substantiallyclosed by end walls 28 and 29 so as to define a chamber 31 therebetween.The upper end of the housing wall 27 is open to define a material inlet32 to the chamber, such opening extending for approximately fortydegrees in width for the entire length of the housing. Preferably, theportions of the wall 27 are deformed upwardly to define a verticalthroat 33 through which the material passes in entering the chamber 31.

Material to be agitated, flulfed and conveyed may be initially depositedin a hopper 36 overlying the throat 33 and preferably extending for thelength of the apparatus. The portion of the hopper immediately overlyingthe throat 33 may be flared towards such throat to assist the materialin passing from the hopper to the throat and thence into the chamber 31.

Air is caused to be passed axially through the chamber 31, wherebymaterial deposited therein will be carried by the air stream to anydesired remote position. In this connection, it will be noted that theblower 23 is provided with an air inlet 38 and an air outlet 39, thelatter being operatively connected to the chamber 31 by a conduit 41.More particularly, it will be seen that end wall 28, adjacent the bottomof a vertical diameter thereof, is provided with an air inlet opening42, While the other end wall 29 of the housing is provided with an airand material discharge opening 43 in general axial alignment with-Z theinlet opening 42. Thus, when material is deposited into the chamber, itwill be picked up by the air stream between the openings'42 and 43 anddischarged through the latter through a flexible conduit or the like toany desired remote location.

T In order to properly'feed material to the air stream, and in order toprevent the high velocity air stream from passing upwardly or otherwisedeflecting from its generally axial path through the housing, there isprovided within the cha'mber31- an impeller 46. The impeller includesa-shaft'47 extending axially and centrally of the cylindrica'lchamber'31 and suitably journalled in the end walls 28 and 29 thereof.One end of theshaft is provided with a sprocket 48 which is driven bythe speed reducing unit 22 by a chain or belt 49, whereby-the shaft isdriven at a much slower speed than the blower 23. Secured to the shaft47 are a plurality of radial vanes 51, and bolted or otherwisereleasably attached to each vane is a rubber, neoprene or other flexibleblade 52 which engages and slides along the walls 27, 28 and 29 duringshaft rotation so as to provide a substantial air seal.

It is important to note that the spacing between adjacent vanes orblades is such that when adjacent blades are equidistant from the axes.of the openings42 and .43, the blades Will be slightly spacedtherefrom. By way of example, assuming a housing with approximately a /2inch diameter, the openings 42 and 43 wouldvhave a 2 inch diameter, andas seen in Figure 4,.the blade spacing would result in a space of about/2 inch on each side of the openings 42 and 43 to the respective blades.If the spacing was substantially increased, all of the material betweenadjacent vanes would not be carried off by the air stream resulting inan undesirable recirculation of material. Decreasing the spacing wouldlikewise deleteriously affect optimum operation.

From the foregoing description, it will be understood that material willgradually fall from the hopper 36 through the throat 33 and into chamber31, whereat the vanes will bring continuous successive charges under theinfluence of the air stream for discharge through the opening 43. This,however, would not serve to provide the desirable flufling actionpreviously discussed.

In accordance with the teachings of the present invention, means areprovided for agitating or fluffing the material directly within thechamber 31 so that when a material such as rock wool is being used, itwill be expanded volumewise to create the desirable air cells throughoutthe mass of material prior to its exit through the discharge opening 43.In this manner, irrespective of the shortness of length of the conduitattached to the discharge opening, the material will arrive at itsdestination in proper condition.

As here illustrated, such means includes the use of a plurality of airjets adapted to enter the chamber 31 substantially normal to the axialair flow therealong thereby creating a high degree of product agitation.Such jets are provided by means of an auxiliary air chamber 61 definedby a wall 62, positioned in parallel spaced subjacent relation to thehousing wall 27. This wall extends for the length of the housing and ina transverse direction for approximately 90 degrees of width, i.e.,about 45 degrees on each side of the axes of the openings 42 and 43. Endwalls 28 and 29 extenddownwardly to cover the ends of the chamber 61,and atithe transverse edges the wall 62 is flanged into contact withth'ehousing wall. A series of small jet apertures 63 on housing wall 27operatively connect the chambers 61 and 31, and withparticular referenceto Figure 3 of the drawing, it will be seen that the inlet opening 42 inend wall 28 likewise opens into one end of thechamber 61. It will benoted that the height of chamber 61 is approximately one-fifth thediameter-of inlet opening 42. Thus,- assuming the overall diameter ofopening 42 to be 2% inches, the upper twoinches will be directed intochamber 31, closely corre'spondingto the 2- inch outlet diameter;Preferably the apertures 63 are 75 positioned axially of the housingwall 27 and slightly in advanceof the axes of the end wall openings.

The foregoing construction will result in high velocity air jetsstriking the material and air stream substantially normal to itslongitudinal movement through the housing, creating turbulence,agitation, and a flufiing or separating action on the material.

What is claimed is:

1. Apparatus of the "character described, comprising a housing, means atthe upper end of said housing adapted to receive material, a pluralityof vanes-mounted for rotation about a longitudinal horizontal axis andin engagementwith said housing, said housing havingan air inlet openingat one end-of said housing and a substantially aligned communicating airand material discharge opening at the other end thereof, and meansdirecting a portion of air entering said housing through said inletopening substantially normal to the flow of air between posed verticallydisposed end walls, means defining a material inlet opening adjacent anupper end portion of said side wall, each of said end walls having anopening therein in general axial alignment, a horizontal shaftjournalled for rotation in said end walls and carrying a plurality ofradial vanes thereon, means defining a relatively wnarrow air chamberadjacent the lower end portion of said side wall extending between saidend walls and in alignment and in communication with a portion of one ofsaid end wall openings, and means establishing flow communicationbetween said air chamber and the interior of said housing.

3. Apparatus of the character described including a housing having agenerally cylindrical side wall and opposed verticallydisposed endwalls, means defining a I material inlet opening extending acrosssubstantially the entire upper end portion of said side wall, each ofsaid end walls having an opening therein adjacent the lower end .portionthereof and in general axial alignment, a horizontal shaft journalledfor rotation in said end walls and carrying a plurality of radial vanesthereon, means defining a relatively narrow air chamber adjacent thelowerv end portion of said side wall in communication with a portion ofone of said end wall openings, and extending for substantially theentire length of said side wall, and said last named means including aplurality of upwardly directed air apertures for directing a portion ofair flow from said one of said end wall openings into said housingsubstantially normal to and intersecting the air flow between said endwall openings.

4. Apparatus of the character described comprising a housing having asubstantially semi-cylindrical bottom portion and an open top portiondefining a chamber, end walls enclosing the ends or" said housing, ashaft journalled for rotation on said end walls, a plurality of radialblades on said shaft in engagement with said bottom portion upon shaftrotation, an arcuate wall disposed in spaced subjacent relation to saidbottom portion, each of said end walls having a substantially alignedopening communicating with said chamber, and one of said wall openingsfurther communicating with the space between said arcuate wall and saidbottom portion, and said latter portion having a plurality ofjetapertures therethrough.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS2,152,632 Cassiere Apr. 4, 1939 2,715,246 Van Doorn Aug. 16, 19552,740,672 Morrow Apr. 3, 1956 2,757,049 Temple July 31, 1956 FOREIGNPATENTS 1. 710,306 GreatB-ritain .June 9, v1954

